E.D. Revises Policy Favoring Regular Classes for the Deaf

An Education Department official has announced plans to
revise a longstanding federal policy favoring educating deaf and
hard-of-hearing students in regular classrooms.

Educators have placed too much emphasis on where to educate deaf
students and too little on how best to do the job, Robert R. Davila,
the department's assistant secretary for special education and
rehabilitative services, said in a speech during the annual meeting of
the National Association of the Deaf.

He said the most important factor in deciding how to educate a deaf
child should be the "appropriateness'' of the program for that
child--wherever that program may be.

"From this day forward,'' he said, "the U.S. Department of Education
takes a giant step toward fulfilling our obligations to students who
are deaf, with a policy approach emphasizing that which is paramount in
[federal law], the provision of an appropriate education.''

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, schools are
required to provide children with an "appropriate education'' in the
"least restrictive environment.'' Guided in part by the federal
government, schools have tended in recent years to emphasize the latter
in deciding how to teach deaf students. Educators have interpreted the
term "least restrictive environment'' in most cases to mean the regular
classroom.

As a result, Mr. Davila and advocates for deaf students have said,
many deaf children are inappropriately placed in regular classrooms.
They argue that while some students thrive in such settings, others,
given no means of communicating with their classmates or teachers,
flounder.

Prior Policy Seen as Misguided

Deaf students, their parents, and groups such as the National
Association for the Deaf have long urged federal officials to reverse
the emphasis on regular-classroom placement.

The Commission on the Education of the Deaf, a national panel,
echoed that view in a 1988 report.

Those efforts met with opposition from Mr. Davila's predecessor,
Madeleine C. Will, who said special educators should focus on
"appropriateness in the least restrictive environment.''

Mr. Davila, who has been profoundly deaf since childhood, said the
previous federal policy may have been misguided.

"I strongly believe that the framers of the original P.L. 94-142
[the Education for All Handicapped Children Act] never intended for
[least restrictive environment] to overshadow the law's stated
purpose--an appropriate education based on the child's unique need--for
even one child,'' he told the association for the deaf at its meeting
in Denver in June.

Guidelines Planned

Mr. Davila said his office plans to issue guidelines on the shift in
policy. In keeping with the 1988 commission recommendations, he said,
the guidelines will urge special educators to take a number of factors
into account when planning a deaf child's education program.

They include: severity of hearing loss and the potential for using
residual hearing; academic level and learning style; communication
needs and the preferred mode of communication; placement preference;
individual motivation; and family support.

Mr. Davila said the department will change its procedures for
monitoring state special-education programs to reflect the new
emphasis.

Panel Clears Education Bill

In another development in the field of deaf education this summer,
the House Education and Labor Committee voted unanimously to
reauthorize the Amendments to the Education of the Deaf Act of
1986.

The bill, HR 5483, is now pending on the House floor. It would
provide "such sums as necessary'' for the continued operation of
Gallaudet University and the National Technical Insitute for the Deaf,
the nation's only postsecondary institutions for deaf students.

Gallaudet, located in Washington, operates a model elementary and
secondary school for deaf students and conducts research on
deaf-education issues.

The bill would authorize research on strategies for teaching
minority children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

It also would authorize federal support for new training programs
for interpreters in schools.

The measure calls for a scholarship program for deaf students,
particularly those from minority backgrounds, who pursue careers in
special education.

Lawmakers dropped a provision that would have created a federal
panel to provide advice to the Congress and to the Education Department
on special education.

"There was not enough support for that in the disability
community,'' said Patricia Laird, a legislative analyst for the Select
Education Subcommittee, which held hearings on the bill.

She said lawmakers also decided against addressing the
least-restrictive-environment issue for deaf students after Mr. Davila
announced the Education Department's change in policy.

Vol. 11, Issue 40, Page 39

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